The storm ahead...

This post is a little out of sequence. I just liked the photos taken at Myall Lakes National Park on the morning of our drive to Sydney last Friday.

If only we could find a way to protect them from the stormy life ahead. The former photo is how we'd like it to be, but the latter is the reality...

Dog on the Tucker Box

I don't know what has got their attention but it seems they have missed the dog sitting right behind them...

Later, the boys were painfully careful about where they placed their coins in the fountain in order to maximise the return on their wishes... I'm wishing them the best of luck on that one... Sadly, I suspect I know what Santa has (or hasn't) got for them this Christmas.

Sydney

I want to give you an example of our 'long car journey' conversation. We are about 2 hours into one of our longest drives, cruisin' down highway number one from Sydney to the farm...

Matt turns to me (keep your eyes on the road!!) and asks casually, "So, how many times have you driven from Sydney to Melbourne (or the farm) or back?"
P "Umm, that time in '96.. No, I caught the train.. Umm.. Never.. How many have you?"
M (matter of factly) "I think about 15"
P (anxiously) "Are you sick of it yet?"
M (hilariously) "Oh no! It's different every time! No, seriously! That wind farm (on the hill in the distance) is new.."
I am supposed to be reassured that he is not bored, instead I am alarmed that he appears to remember every detail of the 900km stretch...

We are leaving Sydney and our Sydney cousins behind us :(
This has definitely been a highlight of our time away, and one of the more highly anticipated stopovers by the boys.. "When are we getting to Tom and Ned's house?" being a regular question from about 10 minutes into the first drive in early October...

We had only one really 'must-do' thing on our list for Sydney. Luna Park. We took 4 excited boys, but forgot to take the motion sickness pills and earplugs for us.. The final photo below is Hamish (truly having a fantastic time) standing over a Marilyn Monroe style air-vent at Luna Park, claiming to be a 'fat man' with his shirt all puffed up... The little stick legs are a bit of a give-away...

There were many other fun-filled adventures, and glorious food and wine experiences had along the way (thank you Emma and Richard!). I love that the boys look like veteran Yum-Cha attendees.

One of the things I'm always on the lookout for whenever we visit Sydney is 'the wistful look'... Matt gets it when we are driving along street after street of harbour views, past impossibly cute sandstone cottages, as the sun filters through the most enormous fig and eucalyptus trees. Surely I don't need to translate 'the look'. But incase I do, it basically means "Ahh.. I miss Sydney..Wouldn't it be awesome to live here Penne?" There are different nuances I could describe. Including, but not limited to, "See what I left behind to be with you Penne?" and "Look how easily I can drive past all this traffic on the inside lane and still end up going the right way through a massive spaghetti junction! I was born to drive in Sydney!" None of this has ever actually been said to me of course.. But it doesn't need to be. I have seen it all in 'the look'.
Curiously, this is the first visit without an obvious attempt at 'the look'. I can only think of two explanations. Possibility #1 - We have been to so many extraordinarily beautiful places recently that Matt no longer knows where to yearn for... Possibilty #2 - He is aware that he is not the only one making lifestyle sacrifices in this relationship, and it would be too much to ask for one more upheaval - even if it is just with a 'look'...

Myall Lakes

Dinner by the lake, colourful sunset, warm water, camp site to ourselves ... magic !

Yamba

Hat Head

Happy camper ! Our camp overlooks a playground and is 50m from the beach. There are kids everywhere.

Motivation

The boys just swam the length of a 25m pool in one go for the first time. We could never have inspired such a feat but the pool attendant said no playing on the GIANT JUMPING CASTLE in the pool until they did. In they hopped and did it with ease !

Byron

We left Seaworld with nowhere booked and no fixed idea of where to go. Driving down the coast we passed sleepy beachside towns but none appealed, or maybe it was the rain.

It soon became apparent that what we really wanted was Byron Bay - good food, good beach and on the boys must have list, souvenir shops.

A walk around the lighthouse led us to watching a pod of dolphins playing - a greater appreciation of dolphin tricks gained at Seaworld. After watching the surfers for awhile, Will declares his ambition to surf inside the curled bit of the wave... We might be here for a few days.

Kidsworld

Despite heavy rain and the closure of half the attractions the kids still declare Seaworld "awesome". Might have been something to do with all you can eat dessert at dinner followed by "breakfast buffet" with pancakes, pastries and self serve juice.

Brisbane and the Ginger Factory

The cousins met up at the Ginger Factory as planned. H. had to be reminded frequently that E. is not a life sized Teddy bear - so strong was his affection. We went on the boat ride and the train ride, got the fridge magnet, and had ginger sorbet, ginger beer and ginger bread men - the boys absolutely loved it!

We have been having trouble tearing ourselves away from Damon, Cathy, Magnum and Emmett's place. Some highlights included being in a place that feels like home (complete with toys and a Christmas tree), and a really lovely afternoon at cousin Monique and Chris' place with Fien, Ted, Justine, Brett and kids.

Also loved the 'Spotty Room' and 'Magic Land' at the Gallery of Modern Art (where we went with our friends from Mataranka after we bumped into them 'coincidentally' taking the same train to Southbank). There were playgrounds and swimming pools and often they were combined. We finally felt the need to wear some bed clothes to fend off the Brisbane 'chill', and our car had a bit of a wash on the front lawn - usually souvenir gifts of Fraser Island's coloured sands are encased in glass bottles...

In the kids words, "Brisbane is awesome!" My sentiments exactly.

Leaving Fraser, arriving Noosa

This post is written within minutes of second coffee, having feasted on breakfast by the beach. Life is grand.(cousin James can hold no threat over us now..)
The thrill of making it off the 4WD Mecca intact was worth every stressful bump, bounce and scrape, but moving right along, the boys have been up since 4.45 this morning - so eager are they to meet their cousin, Emmett, at the family favorite P@## Weak World - the Ginger Factory in Yandina. You will get to see the photos if you can stay tuned...

Fraser Island part 2

So... Again, the photos are not in sequence. The middle photos are of a lovely relaxing swim at Lake McKenzie. That afternoon we headed of to Lake Wabby for some sand dune surfing. The first photo is at it's lookout at sunset... The second photo is of the 2 guys from National Geographic (Andrew Gregory takes awesome panoramic pictures - if you are looking for a 2012 calendar, try his Australian Geographic Panorama calendar) who pushed us out of the sand when we got very stuck on the way. The fourth photo is of Matt finally getting to use his shovel... Pointless really. The thing that saved us was a pair of bright orange (yes, the colour is important) grippy tracks, and a journo (Ken, if you are reading this, thanks a million) and photographer desperate to get to Lake Wabby before sunset... After some swearing, we made some new friends and enjoyed a meal together at the resort.
The last photo is the obligatory touristy shot of the giant Satinay trees used to make the Suez Canal.

We learned a lot about 4WDriving that day - and then felt in a position to pass on our wisdom to all the people we came across stuck in the sand in the following days.
Unless you want to hear about 'getting purchase' on soft sand up hills, I advise you not to get Matt started...

Sand Dunes !

Fraser Island Part 1

We are still on Fraser - 'a Mecca for 4WD enthusiasts'. It's funny how you think you know someone well and then they turn out to be a '4WD enthusiast'... Anyway, this island turns out to be a major motivator for our trip. We were all pretty jubilant to have made it up and down the beach with only a squeaky underbelly (as the fine sand tickled our TUMmy) - definitely not squeaky clean even after Matt lovingly bathed our baby with fresh water at the end if an adventure-packed day. We all climbed a big sand dune (Matt may have been more excited if he had been able to drive up) and ran back down again. Evidently our children seemed to prefer running in the tyre tracks than making them unlike Matt.. "How can they ask 'when are we gunna get there' when we are driving on a beach??!!!?" No one can answer this classic parent question.

Meanwhile I can't help but feel like I'm relaxing in a puddle at the car park...

Don't worry about us, all you faint hearted readers - we are back at the hotel now, safely cocooned by the 2 metre high electrified dingo-proof fence, and full 3G Telstra mobile service.